1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to games and more particularly to games in which players deal in properties.
2. Background Art
Games, particularly board games, in which players buy and sell things are old in the game art. Perhaps the best known prior art property dealing game is Parker Brothers' "MONOPOLY" Game which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,026,082 issued Dec. 31, 1935 to Darrow. In that game, players proceed around the board's peripheral path by die roll and/or card instruction. If the player lands on an unowned piece of property, the player may purchase the property. However, if the property is owned and unmortgaged, the player must pay rent to the owner. After all of the properties are acquired, players continue to move around the board and may make deals with each other to acquire additional properties. The value of each of the properties is predetermined and known by all players. For each property, the purchase price, mortgage value and rent are printed on "deed" cards. Only two of the twenty-eight properties have some unknown element of value; namely, the rent which is an amount times a die roll. In the art auction game disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,210 issued July 25, 1972 to Breslow, value cards selected at random are clipped to the back of simulated works of art to set their value for the duration of the game, with the value remaining concealed to all but the owner until the end of the game. Unknown value is an important element in two other prior art games in which players strive to obtain treasure chests, not knowing the actual contents of the treasure chests. These two games are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,656,943 issued Jan. 24, 1928 to Firestone and 4,569,527 issued Feb. 11, 1986 to Rosenwinkel et al. There remains a need, however, for a property dealing game in which there is an element of uncertainty as to the value of the property being acquired and which provides the opportunity for a second, less structured deal making phase of play.